Five star addition

A NEW five-star hotel, a new upmarket shopping street and millions of square feet of the city's most expensive office floorspace: Spinningfields has been hard to miss. But the massive Deansgate development has more growing to do in 2008, say bosses at Allied London, the force behind the mighty city centre scheme.

A NEW five-star hotel, a new upmarket shopping street and millions of square feet of the city's most expensive office floorspace: Spinningfields has been hard to miss.

But the massive Deansgate development has more growing to do in 2008, say bosses at Allied London, the force behind the mighty city centre scheme.

The latest moves see Allied London beef-up the leisure and retail side of the 4.6m sq ft project which, until now, has been better known for scooping lettings to some of the city's biggest banks than for its shops and hotels.

The hotel will be close to new stores from high fashion retailers including Armani, Vivienne Westwood and Louis Vuitton.

The 24-storey building named The Manchester will be situated on Bridge Street at the northern gateway to Spinningfields.

The Manchester's lower 12 floors will be dedicated to a full service, 200-room hotel complete with conference facilities, restaurant, bar and lounge and an exclusive spa and health club situated on the 11th floor.

The upper 12 floors will be occupied by approximately 200 residential apartments, with private entrance, roof garden and full access to all hotel services.

The decision to mix apartments and hotel together in one building follows the completion two years ago of the Beetham Tower, at the southern end of Deansgate.

The Manchester has been designed by Make Architects - the architectural practice set up by Ken Shuttleworth, designer of London's famous Erotic Gerkin building, the Swiss Re tower.

Compliment

Mike Ingall, Allied London chief executive said: "The Manchester will complement the premium offering of international fashion retailing and shopping within Spinningfields and will also be a valuable asset for the top flight financial and professional services companies occupying the 2.37 million sq ft of flexible office space."

Allied London is currently inviting expressions of interest in The Manchester from operators and investors

"Spinningfields presents a rare opportunity for an international hotel group to establish their brand in an exciting new cityscape of award-winning architecture and dynamic public realm at one of the UK's most highly sophisticated, managed estates."

Dominic Mayes of Knight Frank, appointed by Allied London to find the hotel operator, said: "This is an exceptional opportunity for an international hotel brand to gain representation in one of the country's most dynamic cities".

Earlier this autumn allied London revealed that the UK's largest bank, HSBC is set to occupy the remaining 30,000 sq ft of office space at No 4 Hardman Square. They signed up for a 15-year lease at £28 per sq ft.

The same building will also become home to Grant Thornton, which agreed to take 25,000 sq ft last year.

They join office occupiers including Royal Bank of Scotland, accountants Deloittes, Guardian Media Group and a major 750,000 sq ft civil and criminal courts complex for the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Landmark

"We are delighted to have landed such a high profile organisation for this prominent landmark building", said Michael Ingall.

"Spinningfields has set a benchmark for office accommodation in Manchester and this has been reflected in the level of success we have achieved at the scheme. HSBC will add to the mix of companies located at Spinningfields and I have no doubt that the development will continue to attract similar high quality occupiers."

Ken Bishop, director at Manchester property consultants DTZ, said: "Spinningfields is without doubt the best regional office led scheme in the country."